Care & Upkeep of Bamboo

Containing

• Bamboo takes one of two growth habits: either running or clumping. The running varieties must be contained or they will spread rampantly and could become invasive. Bury sheets of fiberglass or high density polypropylene, oriented vertically, to form a barrier that is at least 30 inches deep. Bodies of water, such as streams or ponds, along with a well-traveled gravel road, can help to stop the spread of running bamboo. Clumping bamboo, which spreads slowly and only a short distance in a way similar to ornamental grasses, does not usually require containment.

Cultivating

• Newly planted bamboo requires regular watering until it becomes established. However, do not allow the soil to remain saturated, as this can prove fatal. Protect young transplants from the afternoon sun and from high winds. Once the plants are well-established, they will require neither artificial irrigation nor protection from the heat of the sun. Control weeds by mowing, hand-weeding, mulching or application of herbicide while new plantings are becoming established. After established, bamboo will out-compete any weeds growing in its midst.

Harvesting

• Harvest bamboo for sale as transplants in early spring before the shoots emerge. Cut the tough rhizomes with a knife after digging and before lifting them from the ground.

  Leave the largest and straightest shoots to grow into culms; harvest culms between the ages of 3 and 5 years. Cut canes by hand in late winter before spring growth begins or in late summer.

  Harvest shoots for culinary uses when you first notice them emerging. Cut them off by hand below ground level, at the point where they are attached to the rhizome. Harvest shoots promptly, as they quickly grow tough.

Eradicating

• Hand-dig small patches of unwanted bamboo. This may be an ongoing process, because small pieces of root left in the ground will regrow. Repeated mowing of low-growing varieties is often enough to exhaust the root system so it stops growing. Use of a systemic herbicide, such as imazapyr or glyphosate, can also be effective in eradicating large unwanted colonies of bamboo. Cut the culms and brush the cut surface with the herbicide. Spraying the foliage with herbicides is less effective in eradicating bamboo, although it does seem to suppress its growth.